IU: King can't sign autographs at Otters game

United States' Lilly King smiles after a semifinal of the women's 200-meter breaststroke during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)(Photo: AP)

UPDATE: According to IU compliance, it appears the NCAA does have "a small exception" to its rule that prevents student-athletes from signing autographs for an entity like the Otters.

However, the Otters weren't supposed to make that a focus of their news release announcing she will be throwing out the first pitch on Friday.

They were permitted to announce she will be at Bosse Field to be honored in her hometown, and part of that would include interacting with fans, which includes signing autographs.

This story will be updated.

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The Evansville Otters jumped the gun on promoting an appearance by two-time Olympic gold medalist Lilly King on Tuesday, only to have the event nixed by the Indiana University compliance office.

The Otters sent out a news release stating the swimmer would sign autographs Friday at Bosse Field during the team’s game against the Southern Illinois Miners.

King, a sophomore at Indiana University, is limited in the scope of her public appearances by NCAA rules.

When told the Otters were promoting an appearance by King, IU head coach Ray Looze indicated he knew nothing about it and thanked a reporter for telling him about it. He then called back a few minutes later and said King had been told she can’t make promotional appearances.

IU turned down a previous request from Ellis Park.

“Our compliance office just got wind of that today,” Looze said Tuesday night. “She’s been told she can’t sign autographs. She’s going to the game but she’s not going to sign autographs.”

The Otters removed their news release from the team website Tuesday evening and deleted a tweet promoting the autograph signing.

"We are working with IU compliance,” said Andrea Wallace, operations manager for the Otters. “We had done our homework, thought everything had been approved and then found out that it was not.

“So, we're working with them to make sure nothing is going to interfere with (King's) collegiate status because her interest is what we're concentrating on right now. So we'll send out an updated release when we get clearance for what we can do."

King won the 100-meter breaststroke at the recently completed Rio Olympics and swam a leg of the United States’ winning 400 medley relay.